PREGAME NOTES: Twins vs. Mariners, August 27th

What's up strangers? That's right I'm back for the final game of the homestand. Sorry for the absence, but I've been busy with WSU and Pac-10 football this week.

Let's get to it really quickly ...

Pretty quiet pregame session with Jim Riggleman. Not much to report about. He talked about the dangers of maple bats, a little more about replay, Yuni batting second again today, and that's about it. Nothing earth shattering. He didn't endorse a presidential candidate or anything like that.

He did address the reason why JJ Putz come in for the save last night. Earlier in the day, Putz admitted to being a little sore, so he wasn't going to take any chances.

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"If we were in the playoff race, he'd have been in there," Riggleman said.

He also talked about Brandon Morrow's tough outing yesterday in Tacoma, saying that he talked with Rainiers pitching coach Dwight Bernard, who said Morrow just had a bad game, which is going to happen.

Riggleman shifted around the rotation somewhat for this weekend's series in Cleveland ... most importantly he is waiting to start Carlos Silva. He had said that Silva was going to start on Sunday the 31st, but that would have required making a roster move. Instead, he'll wait till after Sept. 1 when they call up any player on the 40-man roster to pitch Silva. So Silva will probably start on Sept. 1 at Texas.

Saturday's game against Cleveland will not be televised. FOX originally picked up the game and scheduled it for 12:55 p.m. But for obvious reasons, FOX has dropped the game and chosen to televise a different game. But since the game time is in the FOX blackout window, it cannot be televised. Cleveland could have changed the time after FOX dropped it, but chose not to, keeping it the same. SO if you want to follow the game you'll have to listen to it on KOMO 1000-AM.

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